Friday, May 11, 2012

✿ The word 'normal'. ✿

Today I'm going to be discussing something that I've wanted to write down for quite a while now. This has always been a strong opinion of mine, so I hope this inspires some kind of discussion.

According to Google.

As you can see from the definition above, normal is conforming to a 'standard' that's 'expected' of us. What is this 'standard' and why is it 'expected' of us? Most people don't seem to ask this question, but it's been on my mind for quite a while now. Society seems to be made up of some kind of secret rule book that if not followed, will bring embarrassment and misery on the person who didn't conform. This word is something that's putting us into some kind of box that doesn't and shouldn't exist.

So, who created this 'norm' in the first place? The finger is immediately pointed at the government, but they just set the rules, right? The social norm can be affected by quite a few things, including politics and religion. However, most of the influence for the social norm is force-fed to us through the media. Via TV and magazines etc, we see the image that we 'should be', and the way that we 'should' act, in order to be 'normal'. Just as an example, if I was to go out shopping whilst dressed completely in clothes I'd made out of leaves, I'd be ridiculed for not being 'normal'. But why? So what if I want to wear leaf clothes, surely that's my decision? It makes no sense to me why people immediately get so defensive and abusive when they're faced with a new concept, something that they'd never really thought of, something out of the box. I'm not saying that wearing clothes made out of leaves is the way forward, but this is just an example. Who stood up and said, 'here's your four walls, here's your social norm, now work within it,'?

This isn't just with fashion but also lifestyles, including sexuality. Heterosexuality has been the 'norm' for quite a while, with a lot of people referring to it as the 'normal' sexuality to be. This literally makes me feel nauseous as I find it hard to believe that people seriously believe that one sexuality is more 'normal' than the other. Both are completely 100% natural. So yeah, when a male and a female get together they can have a child, whilst those who are homosexual can't, but not everybody wants children anyway, and with the issue of the population increasing more and more, more children are being put up for adoption which gives homosexual couples a chance to have a child if they want one. So, to me the idea of there being a 'normal' sexuality is repulsive and literally makes me lose hope in some people on this planet.

I could literally talk about this subject all day, but to me this 'box' that we live in makes no sense. Our only limit is ourselves and we're chaining ourselves down and allowing no new growth. People can't go through their everyday lives without getting some kind of snide comment about how their hair looks 'wrong' or they're wearing their clothes 'wrong' and I sincerely believe it should stop, now.

This is pretty much a rant, so I'm sorry if I've gone completely off topic at bits. I've probably missed quite a bit out, but hey.

Leave a comment and tell me your views on the word 'normal' and whether or not you think it limits society in any way. (I'll also check out your blog!)

7 comments:

I think that the word 'normal' is a destructive influence. At my school I've been outside of the 'norm' for the past 7 years, because I don't seem to conform to the bullshit stereotypes expected of me! Great post, I enjoy a good rant too!

I wish we could do whatever we want and not be judged. Who says your dress can't be that short? You can't just sleep with that guy on a whim? You cant like guys and girls? It's pathetic, fuck the word normal

This sounds a lot like Louis Althusser's view of society, especially as he expressed in his essay "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm)The essay it kind of dense, so I wont blame you if you don't read it. There are probably clearer videos about it on YouTube or something.Btw, when Althusser says "ideology" he means something similar to what you do when you say "normal."